A Low-Voltage, Low-Current, Digital-Driven MEMS Mirror for Low-Power LiDAR

Wang, Dingkang; Thomas, Lenworth; Koppal, Sanjeev J.; Ding, Yingtao; Xie, Huikai

doi:10.1109/lsens.2020.3006813

Cited by 22 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…A new electrothermal MEMS mirror is designed and fabricated with the adaption of the motion compensation application. We note that other previously reported MEMS mirrors with electrothermal actuators, electrostatic actuators, or electromagnetic actuators may also be applicable to the motion compensated LiDAR scanning [23,20,49].…”

Section: A the Mems Mirrormentioning

confidence: 91%

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Design of an Adaptive Lightweight LiDAR to Decouple Robot-Camera Geometry

Chen¹,

Wang²,

Thomas³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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A fundamental challenge in robot perception is the coupling of the sensor pose and robot pose. This has led to research in active vision where robot pose is changed to reorient the sensor to areas of interest for perception. Further, egomotion such as jitter, and external effects such as wind and others affect perception requiring additional effort in software such as image stabilization. This effect is particularly pronounced in micro-air vehicles and micro-robots who typically are lighter and subject to larger jitter but do not have the computational capability to perform stabilization in real-time. We present a novel microelectromechanical (MEMS) mirror LiDAR system to change the field of view of the LiDAR independent of the robot motion. Our design has the potential for use on small, low-power systems where the expensive components of the LiDAR can be placed external to the small robot. We show the utility of our approach in simulation and on prototype hardware mounted on a UAV. We believe that this LiDAR and its compact movable scanning design provide mechanisms to decouple robot and sensor geometry allowing us to simplify robot perception. We also demonstrate examples of motion compensation using IMU and external odometry feedback in hardware.

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Section: A the Mems Mirrormentioning

confidence: 91%

“…• We present the design of a novel LiDAR sensor adopting a MEMS mirror similar to this LiDAR MEMS scanner [49]. This design enables wide non-resonant scanning angles for arbitrary orientations.…”

Section: B Mems Mirror-enabled Adaptive Lidarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of an Adaptive Lightweight LiDAR to Decouple Robot-Camera Geometry

Chen¹,

Wang²,

Thomas³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Various methods have been applied to miniaturize the optical scanning elements of the LiDAR system, such as the two-mirror systems presented by Wang et al 1 and Nguyen et al 2 or the wobbling mirror for circular scanning presented by Pensala et al 3 and Hoffman et al 4 This work is concentrated on a single-mirror approach for a 2D-scanning pattern suitable for use in forward-looking LiDARs. Different types of 2D-scanning LiDARs have been reported based on PZT-elements 5 and electrothermal, 6,7 electromagnetic, 8 or electrostatic actuators. 9 Actuators fabricated on the aluminium nitride (AlN) thin-film-based process offer comparable performance levels with other state-of-the-art 2D scanning techniques, in which the tilt angle and the mirror size are mainly limited by mechanical considerations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resonating AlN-thin film MEMS mirror with digital control

Ruotsalainen

Morits

Ylivaara

et al. 2022

J. Optical Microsystems

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Piezoelectrically actuated resonant micromirrors were designed to meet the light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system requirements. Key features were a 3-mm mirror aperture, a 40-deg field of view, and a 50-Hz refresh rate. The presented micromirror provides biaxial symmetrical beam steering with AE12.7 deg mechanical tilt angle, resulting in a 50-deg field of view with an adjustable Lissajous XY-scanning pattern for a forward-looking LiDAR system. The mirrors were fabricated using silicon on insulator wafers, and actuation was based on piezoelectric aluminium nitride thin film. The mirrors were vacuum packaged for high-quality factor resonator operation. The device design contained eight separate piezoelectric aluminium nitride elements arranged as differential pairs for each axis, where each actuator was equipped with a sensing element providing a mechanically coupled electrical feedback signal. The piezoelectric elements connected as actuators required only minimal power and were directly compatible with CMOS low-voltage logic, which eases integration to driving digital systems. The sense elements are used to monitor phase, amplitude, and frequency. A digital control system connected to each of these elements provides accurate frequency and phase control of independent orthogonal resonators, permitting control of the X and Y amplitudes and the refresh rate of the Lissajous pattern.

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“…At present, the LiDAR system still has many shortcomings for the autonomous driving market. The scanning angle is limited, the power consumption is large and expensive [7], [8]; therefore, improvement is desirable. Lee and Wang added the f-theta lens and achieved the linear scan [9], [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Realization of Wide Field-of-View 3D MEMS LiDAR

et al. 2022

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Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors are promising for automated transportation to detect the surrounding environment. However, most LiDAR solutions are complex and bulky. By designing a MEMS-mirror-based LiDAR, we can improve the volume constraints, but MEMS mirrors could limit scanning angles. In this work, we simulated and demonstrated a MEMS LiDAR system to solve the current obstacles. Combining a MEMS mirror and a wide-angle lens into the system, small-volume and large field-of-view (FOV) LiDAR systems can be realized. We use ray tracing optical simulation software to design a pair of aspherical lenses to expand the scanning angle. After the laser beam passes through the wide-angle lens, the FOV can be increased to 104 degrees. The distortion of the wide-angle lens is controlled below 3%, making the scanned image precise to the actual situation. In order to experimentally demonstrate the small-volume MEMS scanning LiDAR, a modular laser rangefinder is used with a MEMS mirror. The entire system of the LiDAR scanner is around 15 cm × 5 cm × 2.5 cm. In the natural light environment for wide-angle LiDAR measurement, the maximum error is less than 2%. Finally, an image processing program is written to convert the scanned data into a 3D point cloud image, and the generated image proves the complete function of the proposed LiDAR.

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A Low-Voltage, Low-Current, Digital-Driven MEMS Mirror for Low-Power LiDAR

Cited by 22 publications

References 11 publications

Design of an Adaptive Lightweight LiDAR to Decouple Robot-Camera Geometry

Design of an Adaptive Lightweight LiDAR to Decouple Robot-Camera Geometry

Resonating AlN-thin film MEMS mirror with digital control

Design and Realization of Wide Field-of-View 3D MEMS LiDAR

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